


in the dark

by MrGrumpyGills43



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Keith is v angsty, Lance gets beat up, M/M, Secret Santa, but i can add more if you would like a good ending!, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 21:17:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9028108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrGrumpyGills43/pseuds/MrGrumpyGills43
Summary: As he sat in the eerie room, memories flooded back. Images of his teammates, partners in fighting the enemy. Oh, how he wished to see them again. His stomach sank with the thought of them in similar rooms, or even worse, dead.Other recollections of his family back on Earth returned to him. His mamá’s cooking and gentle reprimands, his siblings’ jovial laughter and never ending teasing fun, his father’s hugs and strict discipline. Homesickness and wanting made his chest ache. What he would do just to be with all of them one more time.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kylesophie](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=kylesophie).



The room was dark, quiet. Unsettling for the prisoner it held. Lance was skinnier than usual, cheeks gaunt with lasting effects from starvation. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold out, how much longer he could take the near constant abuse.

 

As he sat in the eerie room, memories flooded back. Images of his teammates, partners in fighting the enemy. Oh, how he wished to see them again. His stomach sank with the thought of them in similar rooms, or even worse, dead.

 

Other recollections of his family back on Earth returned to him. His mamá’s cooking and gentle reprimands, his siblings’ jovial laughter and never ending teasing fun, his father’s hugs and strict discipline. Homesickness and wanting made his chest ache. What he would do just to be with all of them one more time.

 

Bright light flooded through the room, causing him to flinch back in pain. Guards hovered at the entrance, no empathy in their features. They prodded the boy to his feet, silent when he stumbled onto his knees. Forcing him to his feet once more, they practically dragged him to the new location.

 

The purple walls haunted him. They were sometimes a solace, but otherwise always led to… appalling events. He felt sick just thinking about what they had in store for him. It could range anywhere from harsh questioning to unrestrained torture. However, he wasn’t prepared for what was laid out for him when they finally arrived.

 

Spread out in numerous alarming positions were his teammates. Shiro, the strong ever-present leader, was sprawled in a crumpled heap. Hunk, the intelligent and wildly curious yellow paladin, was staring straight ahead blankly. His eyes were unseeing but conscious. Pidge, the sarcastic and knowledgable green paladin, was sobbing against the floor. They were curled into a ball, hands held tightly against their ears. Keith was nowhere to be found, presumably the next one to be carried in after they were finished with Lance.

 

Allura and Coran had to be on their way to help. They couldn’t have forgotten about all of them… Lance just couldn’t accept it.

 

His trance was broken by the guards releasing their grips on him. He whimpered pathetically, attempting to crawl to Hunk, to Shiro, to Pidge. Anyone that he could try to console.

 

A large figure stopped him. They stood right in his path, blocking any escape to his friends. He desperately clawed at their leg, silently willing them to get out of his way.

 

A deep snicker broke his concentration. It made the hairs on the back of his neck sit straight up. “You think you can help them. Can you not see that they are all broken? Your chances of fixing that are slim.”

 

The voice was uncannily familiar, one that he hadn’t heard for months, maybe years on end. He didn’t dare look up and confirm his fears. It was another trick, another way for the Galra to get inside his head.

 

“Look up, Lance. I won’t hurt you just yet. I haven’t gotten to see that pretty face of yours in a while. Won’t you bless me with it now?” The bodiless tone teased. They were enjoying his hurt and pain, he could feel it.

 

Even with the wordless threat, Lance didn’t look up. He kept his shocked face turned to the ground. He wouldn’t dare willingly meet the eyes of the person who had hurt his friends. It was unforgivable.

 

A warm hand forced his head up, trying to make him look anyway. It was too late for Lance to look away. Deep, cobalt eyes met his own. The figure was malicious, eyeing him with thinly veiled amusement. “C’mon Lance, we spent so long apart that I thought you would be happy to see me.”

 

The blue paladin began to shake, struggling to remove his face from the easy grip holding him. It couldn’t be true. It had to be another illusion. It was just a hallucination, something the Galra conjured up to break him.

 

Another laugh escaped the body. This was entertaining to them. They found it humorous to watch Lance break down. “Come, come. Why the long face? Surely you thought about this happening once or twice. One of your own, turning on you. The ultimate betrayal. Who else but Keith? Your fated rival.”

 

A soft sob escaped Lance as he took in the transformation. Keith betrayed him, all of them, the paladins. He was a Galra informer as seen by his deep violet skin and fluffy bat-like ears. His eyes were an uncanny yellow, the bright color contrasting to the rest of the ex-paladin. The only thing that really remained the same was the infamous mullet. Looking at it now, Lance felt a mixture of relief and hurt.

 

“You…” he began weakly, voice hoarse from howling the day before. “You wouldn’t do that. Not the… the Keith _I_ know.”

 

Keith’s grin become feeble, shaking at the corners before stabilizing. “I played you well, then. You trusted me and never saw this coming. That’s an even greater delight than your face when you recognized me.”

 

His trembling grew worse, breaths turning more into wails. “No… no they’re making you say this. I…” a harsh snivel broke off his train of thought. “I won’t believe this.”

 

“Well you better start, because this is who I actually am,” the Galra boy’s easygoing attitude turned harsh, angry. “I’m one of the enemy, born and raised until I was sent to Earth on a scouting mission,” he spat out the story with disgust. “There it is. My horrible backstory that everyone has been waiting for. Welcome to reality, Lance.”

 

Lance didn’t have it in him to fight anymore. With three paladins mangled and one paladin a renegade, he couldn’t hold on to his fragile hope anymore. He fell to his hands, Keith’s heavy gaze following him.

 

The room was silent save for the mixture of Lance and Pidge’s cries. Guards watched the scene unfold emotionally, nudging one of the three injured paladins every so often.

 

After giving Lance a moment to mourn, Keith finally picked the boy up by the hem of his worn shirt. The bright blue eyes were unfocused, still pouring out tears. How the boy had so much liquid left in him to cry was a mystery.

 

Unemotional, the purple boy tilted his head in curiousity. “Were you really that attached to me? So much that you would cry and throw a tantrum? I’m honored, really.”

 

He was numb to the phrases flung at him. Indifferent to the pain Keith was trying to inflict on him.

 

Keith grew angrier as he went longer without any sort of response from Lance. “What, are you ignoring me now? Real mature, Lance. I don’t understand what took me so long to realize how self-conceited you were.”

 

A sudden hand reached out and grabbed Keith by the throat. Immediately guards were on the alert, weapons pointed at the shaking figure that was Lance. Keith donned a lopsided grin, not really portraying that he was in danger. “You’re going to choke me now? What a big, strong thing to do. I would’ve _never_ expected that from you.”

 

Lance’s grip on Keith tightened, forcing the other to loosen his hold on Lance’s shirt. “You… you think you know everything, don’t you? You think you know how I’m going to react and what I’m going to do.” He looked up, a dark expression overcoming his tear-streaked cheeks. “At least I know that I wouldn’t betray my friends to save my own ass. I’m not as much of a horrible person as _you_.”

 

The implication made Keith go completely blank. He didn’t know how to react. What Lance said wasn’t wrong in any aspect, but it still hurt to hear it outloud.

 

After a moment’s pause, Lance finally released Keith, falling to the floor as well. He shakily stood. “So what are you going to do to me? You’ve already frightened everyone else, so why stop? Show me what you’ve got.” His tone was dead, monotone. It was no longer a heartbreaking moment, but now a moment of shielding, of rebuilding walls.

 

The roar that Keith let out as he launched himself at Lance with a closed fist could be heard from the other side of the ship. He pummeled at Lance until the blue paladin’s face was nothing more than a swollen and bright pink mess.

 

Even through the torment, he laughed. Lance laughed until they turned into wet rasps. A pained smile slowly spread across his face, the expression stopping Keith from finishing his rampage. “I bet you’ve just been _dying_ to do that. From the moment you met me, you wanted to destroy me, didn’t you?”

 

The accusation didn’t take long for Keith to fully comprehend. Even though Lance had let his guards down, he still expected something like this from Keith. He had thought about an event like this taking place, yet he decided to trust the red paladin.

 

Standing up hastily, Keith faced away from Lance. “Take him away. Take all of them away.”

 

The guards did as commanded. Pidge began to screech once a single hand was laid on them. After a short scuffle, they were completely silent. The other three paladins were lugged away without anymore conflict.

 

Keith didn’t dare watch them go, Lance’s smug gaze enough of a painful reminder of what he did. The silence was eerie, terrifying. It left him alone with his thoughts for too long.

 

“You did a good job, young one,” a deep voice rumbled behind him. It didn’t take much to figure out who it was. “They all trusted you completely. You have finally shown your complete loyalty to me, and the Galra empire.” Zarkon’s heavy hand landed on Keith’s shoulder. It caused him to straighten, if not raise his defenses.

 

“Thank you, sir. I am happy to have served you well,” he said robotically. It was almost routine by now. He was nothing more than a slave to Zarkon. Not that he would want the noble leader to find out.

 

“Served well indeed. There could be a bright future ahead of you if you keep this up.”

 

The words terrified Keith. He didn’t want this. He wasn’t like this. He was the red paladin, one of the five protectors of the universe. He wasn’t someone who destroyed the universe, yet here he was. He nodded and kept his head straight until Zarkon left the room.

 

His heart still throbbed at the rift he had created between his teammates. This was all a mistake, and there was no way to fix it.


End file.
